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Heaven does not see individuals.
It sees deviation.
Deviation must be corrected.
Even if it means severing fate itself.
---
The stars screamed.
Above the Central Heaven Domain, clouds were torn open by light that had no color—Judgment Light, born from divine wrath.
Each bolt was not lightning but law:
—Thou shalt not ascend beyond Mandate.
—Thou shalt not claim what Heaven has not granted.
—Thou shalt not become fate.
The first to hear it were the Seven Divine Sects.
The second were the secret clans of the Northern Wastes.
The third…
Were the people of the Ironcloud Sect.
---
Ironcloud was trembling.
Elders gathered around the Skystone Obelisk, where divine will took form.
Elder Mu Wan's face was pale. "The heavens are enraged. This has only happened once before—during the final breath of the Hollow Emperor."
Sect Master Tao Jin clenched his fists. "So it's true. Yun Mu has touched the Throne of None."
A younger elder hissed, "We must expel him. Offer his name to Heaven."
Another slammed the ground. "And if we do, we admit we harbored him. Heaven will not spare us."
Silence fell.
They all turned to look at the Gate of Windless Night—the entrance Yun Mu once emerged from with the blood of enemies on his hands and the Hollow Root at his back.
Mu Wan's voice trembled.
> "He is still one of us. But if he returns… we may have to kill him."
---
Elsewhere, in the Mirror-Lotus Domain, a sword descended from the void.
It was not carried.
It was delivered.
Carved from the bones of failed gods, wrapped in prayers never answered.
When it struck the earth, the ground turned to glass. A thousand lotus petals of ash spread outward, and a figure stepped from the wound.
No face.
No name.
Only a title:
> "Judgment Envoy of the Ninth Mandate."
The land around them ceased to breathe.
Birds fell. Rivers turned silent. Cultivators watching from miles away bled from their ears.
The envoy raised a hand.
And the Divine Arrest Seal spread across the sky.
> "Yun Mu," the voice rang out, mechanical and cold.
"By the will of Heaven, you are accused of:
—Violating the flow of fate.
—Possessing unclean ascension.
—Attempting to seat the Throne of None.
—Wielding a path devouring in nature.
Prepare for Judgment."
---
And yet, Yun Mu was nowhere to be found.
Because Yun Mu… was not in the mortal realm.
---
He existed now within the Residual Realm of the Throne.
Not alive.
Not dead.
He stood in a world made of before and after, where every breath echoed across eternity. Here, he was neither cultivator nor spirit. He was only will.
He heard whispers.
> "You should have broken."
"You should have turned back."
"You are alone."
But Yun Mu's voice was calm.
> "I've always been alone."
He stepped forward through impossible space.
And saw what no mortal was meant to see.
The Mirror of All That Could Be.
It showed him the lives he could still take:
—Slayer of Heaven.
—Savior of none.
—Tyrant King of the Hollow Court.
—Martyr.
—God.
—Monster.
Yun Mu looked at them all.
And said:
> "I will not be defined by possibility."
"I will create my own."
And with that, the Mirror cracked.
And the Throne of None acknowledged him.
But it did not crown him.
Instead, it sent him back.
---
With a tear in reality, Yun Mu crashed back into the mortal world—at the heart of Ironcloud Sect, where sect members screamed in panic.
Sky cracked. Walls crumbled. The earth recoiled from his presence.
And the Judgment Envoy descended.
---
"You are unclean," the envoy said. "This world cannot allow your path."
Yun Mu rose, his body smoldering with residual energy.
> "Then this world must break."
He raised a single finger.
A wave of Hollow Qi burst outward.
The sky reversed direction. Clouds shrank. Fire burned upside-down.
The Judgment Envoy stepped forward, blade of Mandate drawn.
> "Heaven's Will cannot be undone."
And Yun Mu answered:
> "Heaven is not my will."
---
The battle began.
And it was not just power.
It was law versus defiance.
Mandate against Hunger.
Order against Void.
The heavens watched.
The sects recorded.
And somewhere deep beneath the world, the Hollow Emperor's sealed tomb stirred for the first time in 10,000 years.
---